Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the self-proclaimed leader of education in New York state, is at it again.
The television ads for his re-election campaign list among his accomplishments the backing off of testing related to the Common Core Standards. In the ad, a smiling Cuomo says, "We were able to stop the testing that would hurt children."
We? Who are that "we"? Cuomo was the biggest proponent in the state for Common Core and the $700 million worth of reasons that went with it.
While the ad goes on to mention his outstanding record of four on-time budgets, an increase in school aid (which still hasn't recovered from cuts during the recession), lower taxes and more jobs, there is no mention of teacher evaluation.
What has happened to the teacher evaluation system the governor crafted? Two years ago, he was personally urging residents to push their schools to get a new teacher evaluation plan written and submitted to the State Education Department, or they would have their aid withheld.
He even had his own website for residents to track the progress of their school districts in developing a plan to subject teachers to "Cuomovaluation." Now there is not a word of this program that he developed and shepherded into law.
Cuomo boasted his plan would rid New York schools of ineffective teachers. He promised to be the advocate for children.
But now, that advocate has gone silent. How can this be? Why is he still allowing bad teachers to roam the halls of the public schools?
Is it because he realized that his plan is not worth the paper upon which it is written? Is it because it is an election year? Is it because he realized that he did not know a thing about evaluating a teacher? No one is talking.
Could it be that the New York State United Teachers and its more than 600,000 voters are now a force with which to be reckoned?
This month, NYSUT elected a new president for the first time in nine years. It's been reported the membership was upset about the former president's support of Cuomo's teacher evaluation plan. Nor do other state unions, including the Civil Service Employees Association and the Public Employees Federation, seem to be overly thrilled with the governor.
Perhaps it is getting a little hot in Cuomo's kitchen. Maybe these unions are about to launch a governor evaluation system of their own.
I think the citizens of New York have a right to know where their governor stands on teacher evaluation today. We have not heard from him on this topic for too long. It is an important topic for the gubernatorial campaign.
He needs to break his silence on teacher evaluation.
If the system he championed is ineffective, he needs to admit that, and it needs to be dropped immediately, because schools are wasting money trying to implement it.
If he intends to keep moving forward with it, then he should take full ownership of it.
John Metallo is a retired teacher and school administrator.